Amazing ID Cards & QR Codes

New video

I have a short video showing photo Id Card designs

I have recently created a new website; see www.needidcards.co.uk

Enter the URL of a video you would like to sharehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs28r6pbOa8

No shortage of snow in my part of Wales, I think I am becoming part eskimo

Guilloche & Fine Line

Spectrum is now able to provide clients with a range of cards featuring guilloche and fine line images. 

This is the type of imagery that you find on bank notes, passports & driving licenses.  You can now have all these features and more incorporated into your card design.

This will give you a card, that is unique to yourself and is not able to be copied or reproduced by a normal card printing machine.  The finished cards may also have features such as ultra violet print to help ensure the integrity of the card. To view this type of text you will require an ultra violet light such as, is used to check bank notes and secure documents, their are many different types on the market.

This range of cards stands along side the cards that are available with overlay laminates from different manufacturers. It all depends on the level of security that you require your cards to hold. And also how long a lifespan a card may be required to serve.  The features that a card may have seem to be increasing all the time.  With the introduction of cheaper Radio Frequency Identification systems, many cards now incorporate this feature in their make up.  If you require that your card be used as a form on tracking of the movement of the card or the individual within a given area that is equipped with RFID readers, the card or its owner may be logged at varying departments within a building.

This may be part of a lone worker system or perhaps as part of a quality control procedure the uses are virtually endless.  RFID does not have to be in a plastic card form and can be incorporated in something as cheap as an RFID enabled sticker. With the reader software on a PC you could even RFID your book or record collection to keep track of the different individual items.   

We over the years take Magnetic Stripe features on ID card for granted and use them without a second thought. The same will soon be here for RFID. Systems that work along side us with out us really being aware of their presence. Only when we require access.  Or some system to work faultlessly to enable us to  progress through our daily lives do we become conscious of their presence.

As the saying goes; we should be working smarter not harder, our guilloche printed and RFID enabled ID cards help us to archive that goal.  

 

Its that time again

Yes summer is finally here, after months of cold, wet and generally terrible weather we are starting to see the SUN shining through and the trees starting to gain their foliage again. It makes us all feel better just to have it light in the mornings.

And we start to travel about the place and to different parts of the UK.  Recently I have visited Newport in Gwent, Bristol, Cardiff and my local town Cwmbran.

Some visits were in connection to my work; others to visit friends & clients of the ID card business, and again some parts of my visits have been dual purpose in a business & pleasure visit to different areas of the towns and cities.  The sunshine makes visits to different place that more enjoyable when you can take your time and maybe stroll in the sunshine in between meeting people. 

Hopefully the next couple of months will give us good weather and provide us all with the enthusiasm to get out in the countryside and enjoy the sights and sounds that it brings.   I am fortunate that I live and work close to and sometimes within rural communities so that I am able to enjoy the benefits of that lifestyle with out a great deal of problems.  I still need to visit the city's regularly as the people their are the ones who normally use my ID cards and Access control products. Well the next city on my must do list is Manchester.  A city I have not visited for a number of years, looking forward to my latest visit next month.  In the meantime I will go on printing up my plastic cards for individuals, associations and companies, throughout the UK and especially the Newport, Cardiff & Bristol regions.

That's all for this short statement, more info on ID cards etc next time.

Biometric Checkpoint logging for Security & Lone Worker safety

Biometric Checkpoint logging for Security & Lone Worker safety

Spectrum gets a Zebra

  Yes Spectrum has added a new Zebra printer to its stable of ID card printers, this allows me to utilise the solid ribbin capabilities of the new machine along side my Datacard machine which I use for full colour print & lamination.

I gives me the capability to print text and design in solid colours to a range of plastic cards. Ideal for text and bar codes. I hold a stock of consumables for the Zebra with a range of ribbon colours which include white, gold, blue, red, green other colours are available.

This machine is exellent when it comes to membership cards and cards which require sequential numbering as the zebra ribbon produces quite a sharp black.  The colour reproduction is also very good, providing edge to edge printing throughout the card range.  The machine is also quite compact which will allow me to attend exhibitions and produce photo ID & membership cards on site.  If this new machine gives me the use of my last Eltron / Zebra model it will have been a good choise of machine. 

Secure - Check - In Biometric Checkpoint Logging

 

Secure-Check-In - Biometric checkpoint logging for Security Personnel & Lone Workers

Powered by ClockInOut Biometric Time & Attendance System

Secure-Check-In is an extension to ClockInOut, our Biometric Time & Attendance system that

will check in and clock, the presence of staff or security officers at a given reference point. It ensures

that the individuals are where they should be, when they should be.

Staff / Security officers present their finger to a biometric finger reader at agreed frequencies

thorough the shift. This will uniquely identify the team member and confirm their

presence at the reader (reference point) and log the date and time.

Alarm triggers can be set to send an email or SMS message to a supervisor or control centre

should a staff member / security officer fail to check in at the required time. This enhances the security of Lone

Workers because if an accident, attack or incident occurs their supervisor is made- aware of the

missed check in and could then take the appropriate action.

The system can also send a text message to a individual or security officer who is late at a Secure-Check-In point prior to a text alert being sent to his supervisor or call centre.

The system can be configured with any number of reference points on any number of sites. One

finger reader and PC is required at each reference point.

Using the latest internet technologies the system has an option to allow the Control Centre to

view live Secure-Check-In clocks across one or more sites. It will deal with multiple staff / security

officers working on multiple sites.

The system will also create time and attendance records. Effectively this solution is two systems

in one.

Audit reports can assure clients that staff /security officers were present when they should have been.

Secure-Check-In Benefits:

Enhanced client confidence

·

Fraudulent call in reports and buddy clocking eliminated.

·

Promotes a culture of good time keeping - ensures that security officers are

where they should be, when they should be.

·

Reduces time sheet administration time

·

Promotes the safety and well being of Lone Workers

·

Spectrum Positive at the QE2 Exhibition Centre London

In a voluntary capacity I an Deputy International Chairman for the security association "IPSA" www.ipsa.org.uk. International Professional Security Association.

IPSA exhibited at the Counter Terrorism exhibition at the  QE 2 center over the 10th & 11th of this month. I was fortunate to be able to support my association and promote Spectrum Positive from the IPSA stand on the 11th.

It proved to be a very interesting day and well worth the 4.30 am rise from bed to catch a 5.30 train into Paddington station, then the tube to St James Park station for the short walk to the QE 2 center. Their was quite an interest in our services and I hopefully generated interest in my ID Card Bureau and Biometric Fingerprint recognition software through out the day.

By the end of the day I felt that it had been a good event for my association and it hopefully raised the profile of both IPSA & Spectrum Positive. Look out for more events and happenings in this blog space.